Abstract

A method of abundance determination based on reddening-independent
properties of low-resolution spectral scans is described and applied to
177 red giants in 19 globular clusters, most of which are at
galactocentric distances in excess of 8 kpc. The general properties of
the halo-cluster system inferred from the abundance results are
examined. It is found that the distribution over abundance of the halo
globular clusters is independent of galactocentric distance for
distances exceeding 8 kpc and that the clusters exhibit differences in
the morphology of their color-magnitude diagrams that are uncorrelated
with metal abundance. The characteristics of the system of halo clusters
are compared with implications of some simple conceptual schemes for the
formation of the Galaxy. It is suggested that the halo clusters
originated within transient protogalactic fragments that gradually lost
gas while undergoing chemical evolution and continued to fall into the
Galaxy after the collapse of its central regions had been completed.

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